“There are a lot of arts advocates here,” said Gustavo Herrera, CEO of Arts for LA and board member of California Forward, as he was welcoming state Attorney General Rob Bonta to the stage of the California Forward Economic Summit. The annual summit brings together leaders in business, community, government, labor, education and philanthropy from across the state. Arts leaders actively participated in conversations at the Summit on key topics such as inclusive economic development, shared prosperity, sustainability, finance, and rural power-building. CA for Arts has prioritized engaging the arts field in economic development efforts, and we are pleased to note an annual increase in arts attendees at the Summit.

California Forward (CA FWD) connects leaders from around the state to develop strategies and solutions that define economic success for California and shape the agenda of state priorities and policies. That success is defined as a sustainable and inclusive economy that balances growth with equity and the environment. In this role, CA FWD was also responsible for convening and supporting regional stakeholders in the CA Jobs First, the Governor’s “regions up” economic recovery planning and investment initiative.

CA for the Arts is one of those stakeholders. Between 2022 and 2024, we worked to ensure that the arts had a seat at the table by connecting arts leaders to CA FWD and to the CA Jobs First regional leaders. We provided tools and training so that arts advocates could help their communities recognize the arts as a priority sector in economic development. And with Arts for LA, we convened a Creative Economy Workgroup at the CA FWD summits of 2022 and 2023. As a result, seven of the thirteen Jobs First regions identified arts and culture as a strategic focus and five of the regions, so far, are funding creative economy projects. This prevalence also led the Governor to include the Creative Economy as a sector to strengthen in his State Economic Blueprint of 2025.

There were two distinct undercurrents flowing through this year’s Summit. One theme was the undeniable and unpredictable change coming from the federal government. And the second was building the case for continuing a regions-based approach to state economic development after Governor Newsom leaves office. There were sessions on the “abundance agenda,” funding climate resilience, building durable regional economic development systems and the importance of solving problems through civic dialogue. Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom addressed the attendees. The Summit was launched with a panel discussion on the economies of Hip Hop and closed with CA Governor Candidate Forum. And arts advocates from across the state were present and contributing to all of it.

CA FWD has always tried to bridge, if not straddle, the political spectrum of the state as they support civic leaders to work across party lines to ensure the economic success of their communities. This ethos shaped the demand for inclusive and representative processes in how regions realized the goals of CA Jobs First and threaded throughout all of the Summit’s discussions. Even in this bridging, it was nearly impossible to maintain political neutrality in the face of seismic policy and norms change. It was jarring to hear about the impacts of the federal government from the stage at the Summit – from the attacks on free speech to the politicization of disaster relief. For example, one panelist shared that while the Feds poured $1.3B into the Camp Fire recovery, the Los Angeles fires have received only $330M in aid. It is difficult not to experience this disparity as an attack on California by the current administration. It was really helpful and exciting to get to know some of the candidates in the Governor’s race. Tony Thurmond, Anthony Villaraigosa, Chad Bianco and Betty Yee were all very thoughtful and passionate. 

What really surfaced, for me, is recognizing the challenges we face in reconciling competing goals and values in order to achieve results. This bridging ethos is the way forward and art and culture can play an essential role in shepherding that future. What we need, in this age of division and faltering institutions, is effective and meaningful problem solving through civic deliberation, which was a panel discussion at the Summit. As Director of Field Engagement and Advocacy, this conversation was a highlight for me. It offered examples of how to grow civic capacity beyond public comment and surveys to enlist neighbors as collaborators and to legitimize government processes. In the session, I shared about how artists, as practitioners of shaping human experience and meaning making, can serve as trusted partners in this process and how cultural spaces are trusted community hubs. A couple of folks came up to me afterwards to find out more.

And what heartened me even further was learning from colleagues how they were contributing insights into the Summit deliberations. They talked about the arts as economic drivers, the importance of establishing policies that strengthen the creative workforce, the need to weave and knit rural voices together and the place-defining activities and spaces that they contribute to their communities. Arts leaders were doing the needed bridging work, advocating for our field while helping CA FWD achieve its goals of “connecting and convening regional stakeholders for shared learning and engagement, and catalyzing structural change.”